Not all meditation is emptying your mind. Nor are all empty minds meditating. Could you clarify what you mean by meditation? Are you looking for the "No Mind" Meditation? The calming meditation? An introspective type?

Truthfully, if we're talking about a "No Mind" sort of meditation, its hard to transmit the kind of knowledge with words... Really, the approach I was taught wasn't a "not thinking" or "banishing thoughts" but, about not grasping them.

Thoughts will always arise, but we have the concious choice not to hold onto them.

"Flashes in the Darkness, illuminating everything then fading away into nothingness" to paraphrase a Zen Teacher.

Then there are meditations of energy effect. Such as the Fire meditations that some monks use to warm their bodies in the snow. Or the Earth meditations that some Qi-Gong/chinese martial artists use to root themselves... when we're talking meditation, we're talking a huge can of worms.

This analogy is surprisingly and unexpectedly? appropriate. Good one, Phoenix.

All this talk about not thinking, empty mind is only for the experts. You are not there yet.

Try this. I am being serious here. Close your eyes and 'see' a can. Then open this can and imagine all these worms wriggling uncontrollably out of it. You are in a state of anxiety, panic even. What do you do? Use you mind to slowly and calmly get them one-by-one back into the can and close the lid.

What do you feel now? Calmer, relaxed, mentally and emotionally more focused?

Repeat this exercise a few times for a few days.

Come back in a week and we can go on to the second lesson. Perhaps by then you will know what the second lesson is without my help.

Oh yes, I can see how the activity of dying could involve the stop breathing part without being labelled as wrongfully done. In fact, one could almost go so far as to say that it isn't done 100% correctly, if it doesn't involve at least some degree of stop-breathing.Therefore I stand corrected wouldn't surprise me if you were to come up with another breathless activity tomorrow, to really turn the knife in my wound... sob!

Quote:Oh yes, I can see how the activity of dying could involve the stop breathing part without being labelled as wrongfully done. In fact, one could almost go so far as to say that it isn't done 100% correctly, if it doesn't involve at least some degree of stop-breathing.Therefore I stand corrected wouldn't surprise me if you were to come up with another breathless activity tomorrow, to really turn the knife in my wound... sob!

Well, I think I'm at a loss, so don't worry about the knife turning

But, something interesting I wanted to point out about some Zen Schools of meditation. They put more emphasis on the exhalation of breath, than the inhalation. Not clearing out the lungs completely, but not rushing to fill them up again either. Its very interesting.

This is the type of meditation that i use. I Tend to calm my breathing down and mantain as less as possible amounts of thoughts in my mind. If there is something that I want to think about i tend to think about it e.g. Problems i tend to mediate about and attempt to solve mentally.